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I've personally witnessed more Calgarians coming to Edmonton to experience Rogers and all the development around it since it opened than in my entire life prior. Granted I don't know a lot of Calgarians, but it's definitely real to some extent.

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction" - Blaise Pascal

I don't mind hockey at all, I just cringe at this place being all about hockey and nothing else.

(...)

Otherwise Richard's servers would lift from the amount of hot air being blown into them.
(...)

I read these two lines while out at dim sum. Thank you for the laugh, although sui mei through the nose was an interesting feeling.

I often joke that I need to liquid cool my CPU's.

As for the all hockey all the time...I agree. It hurts a lot of other endeavours as you can't get any attention. Especially now... I've been waiting for a call back from some folks since November, but now I know I won't hear until the Oilers are out

Two Full Size Arenas needed for Winter Olympics

The winter Olympics is the key to all of this. Seems that you need two full size Arenas (which is odd to me, as I don't remember that in Vancouver).

Ken King said Monday it's "no more than a happy coincidence" the CBEC needs two arenas at a time when King's group is seeking a new arena and event centre.

King is president and CEO of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, which owns the Calgary Flames and Calgary Stampeders. He said a new arena can't become contingent on a successful bid for the Winter Games, because it will take too long.

"Frankly, the chances of success on an Olympic bid are certainly not remote, but we need to have a much higher degree of certainty than that," he said.

King said "productive discussions" around a new arena are ongoing.

"Nothing is guaranteed in this tumultuous day and age, but I think we're making some real progress with the city," he said.

Vancouver has the Pacific Coliseum which was used for figure skating and speed skating during the Olympics. Calgary still has the Corral as well. Smart. Edmonton already wants to rid us of Northlands Coliseum or divide it up or whatever. I say keep it as is. We could use it. Maybe even have two NHL teams in future. Metro New York has three.

Vancouver has the Pacific Coliseum which was used for figure skating and speed skating during the Olympics. Calgary still has the Corral as well. Smart. Edmonton already wants to rid us of Northlands Coliseum or divide it up or whatever. I say keep it as is. We could use it. Maybe even have two NHL teams in future. Metro New York has three.

Metro New York has 20x our population. And in the extremely distant future where we could maybe support another team, we wouldn't get one because TV viewership trumps all, and even then no team would go into that ancient building. Northlands won't be a full arena, and that's the right move.

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction" - Blaise Pascal

In what has been the bluntest talk yet about the future of the Calgary Flames, president of operations Brian Burke said the NHL team will leave the city if they don’t get the new arena they’ve been seeking.

“We’re not going to make the threat to leave. We’ll just leave,” Burke told a business luncheon at the Canadian Club of Calgary Wednesday.

“We still have a building that was built in 1983, the oldest in the league by more than 10 years.

“They figured it out in Edmonton. Where they know that a new building can rejuvenate the downtown. But I guess we’re just smarter than that here.”

Burke’s speech aimed to focus on the financial challenges that Canadian NHL teams face, from a low Canadian dollar to more public support for new builds in the U.S.

I liked Ken King's comment that Burke isn't the spokesman for the Flames. I imagine there were some very heated words spoken back and forth between Burke and King.

My guess is that Calgary will get a new arena, probably within 10 years.

I think will get a new arena, "if" the winter Olympics go ahead. If they don't, I really don't know - there is almost zero appetite in Calgary to put public money into this - unlike Edmonton there isn't a feeling that the downtown needs to be revitalized, so if the Flames want it, they are probably going to have to pay for all of it.

Scott Hennig, vice-president communications with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the public needs to understand that building arenas with public money is not the norm in Canada, adding that NHL rinks in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver were all privately-funded by team owners.

"This is corporate welfare. It's no different than if we gave money to Bombardier.

"The Calgary Flames are a for-profit business."

Chris MacRae, the only business person attending the luncheon who spoke out against Burke, agreed.

"I'm not sure what the benefit is to taxpayers...Right now, you guys are getting a building for free, you're paying no rent at all," said MacRae, whose family has held seasons tickets for more than three decades.

"But at least if you build a bunch of condos on a site, the city will benefit from a lot of tax revenue."

I think edmonton did the heavy lifting already. I cannot say what happened in the 70's however. Rexall was 1977? Saddledome83? So with the red tape my guess is 8 years after ours their new barn will open. I do not trust any typical politicians, nenshi talks out of both sides of his mouth as did mandel.Wouldn't doubt if there was collusion between ken king and Burke to continue to be planting seeds of fear. If enough seeds are planted in the early stages after 2017 never will this topic need to be whispered again as the fear will be deeply planted

Wouldn't doubt if there was collusion between ken king and Burke to continue to be planting seeds of fear. If enough seeds are planted in the early stages after 2017 never will this topic need to be whispered again as the fear will be deeply planted

I don't think Calgarians are as attached to the Flames as Edmontonians to the Oilers. So many from Calgary are transient, they come from other cities, very few were actually born in Calgary, and many bring with them support of other hockey teams (Oilers, Leafs, Canadiens, Jets, etc.). Fear isn't IMO going to work, there is a real distaste of "bailing out / subsidizing" the rich owners, especially at a time when so many people are unemployed. The Flames timed this really badly - this might have flown when oil was at $100, but it wont now, Nenshi is smart - he has his ears to the ground and knows the publics mood on this. I think even in Edmonton, if the arena had been proposed today it would have been a much tougher sell.

Edmonton also has a very transient work force and most of the city has come from somewhere else. Heading to any oiler game where you have other canadian team playing you'll surely see lots of the opposing team jerseys.

The support for the Flames is about the same as the support for the Oilers.

I'll agree - the arena would be a harder sell today than it was in 2013-2014

I guess he can do it. It just seems insincere since it was he himself who made the statement (threat) in the first place.

It is also funny that the bar at the top of your link has a Flames logo and says "IT'S GO TIME".

It's sort of a non disavowal - just "he is not our spokesperson on this issue" as opposed to disagreeing with what he actually said. I agree Burke didn't really say anything much different that King. I think he was just concerned that Burke may have upset their delicate negotiations. It might just have been a bad time to say it so bluntly. It's kind of funny that they keep making threats and then say that they are not, but that's sort of the process for getting a new arena. We've been through all of that here in Edmonton.

I think Calgary will eventually get to some agreement for a new arena. The tough economy is making the process harder and the first option was really not that good and too expensive. I don't think it will be right downtown like Edmonton's, but in their case I think the main issue is a getting a new better building, not so much the location. The current location is ok.

Until they sort things out, we here can enjoy a bit of Edmonton envy in Calgary.

Political posturing. Maybe King thinks this will help the Anyone But Nenshi campaign taking shape in Calgary. After all, Bill Smith is running for Mayor down there.

We had a Mayor Bill Smith and a new arena, so Calgary wants them too!

Not really aware of Calgary politics enough to know who are considered front runners, but unless Ken King and the rest of the old boy establishment rally behind one legitimate pro-arena candidate, I'm not really sure if Nenshi has anything to worry about. Several "run city hall like a business" candidates with identical platforms (vote splitting, anybody?), one with a horribly formatted blog, another who is targeting the millennial stoner demographic, and Calgary's version of Fred Phelps.

^Agreed, Ken King is just trying to play politics re the Mayoral election, Nenshi is not at any risk. Nenshi isn't that popular among the business community, but there is not much support for the Flames owners getting a deal like happened in Edmonton - there isn't the same business case for it / there is no downtown to revitalize. The timing is really bad with high unemployment, people don't have an appetite for public money to spend on an asset owned by a wealthy group of individuals for a game played by very wealthy individuals. If anything this is helping Nenshi - it is showing the public that he isn't rolling over to the demands of these owners.

The Flames aren't going to move. Period. They aren't Winnipeg, or Quebec City, playing in relative barns when those cities got their team yanked. excuse pun..

Also have to laugh at the typical badgering about how hard it is to operate an NHL team in Canada. lmao. Canadian clubs, almost all of them, are invariably among the most successful in gate and revenues. Despite the low Canadian dollar.

Good luck in anycase landing somewhere else and trying to get a new market to care about a team with a wimp like Johnny Hockey as the club figurehead. lmfao. Who would support that club somewhere else?

I think the Flames just came to their senses in rescinding the Arena demand. Full well they know how brutal the optics are.

I continue to find it funny that arenas built in 1974, or 1983 are "old" when NHL clubs had rinks that were near Century old when these Alberta Rinks were opened.

Last edited by Replacement; 13-09-2017 at 10:15 AM.

"if god exists and he allowed that to happen, then its better that he doesn't exist"